• 5Jun 13

  People need to lighten up......

  

  I find it funny that people are in an uproar over GS' review of the Last of Us.  An 8.0 is a very good score and, despite what you may think of Tom McShea, I felt he gave an honest, trite assessment.  Would you have preferred Tom McShea had handed down a 7.0?  Or a 6.0 instead?  I'm sorry, but get over it.   It's only a number.  Opinions are based on personal experiences and shouldn't be representative of the integrity of the overall final product.  You the consumer determine whether or not it was worth the time and money.

  I can recall when most people got upset over Bioshock Infinite's 9.0 score, which many had felt deserved a 10.0. 

  It's troubling to see people get so worked up over a few numbers.  Numbers can't do anything.  A game's worth is determined by individual experiences and what a gamer gets out of it overall.  If they themselves found the game enjoyable and fun, then a number score can do little, if anything, to diminish that.  It should be noted that the Last of Us is, thus far, receiving universal acclaim from many major publications anyhow.  It already won well over 25 or so awards, including best PlayStation exclusive game of E3.

  The Last of Us will be released on Friday, June 14th.  Draw your own conclusions, have fun, and be careful out there.

  • Posted Jun 5, 2013 5:51 pm GMT
  • Category: Opinion
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• 3Jun 13

  June Gaming Cookies -- "A One Console Pony"

  

  June's here, and it's looking to be an eventful month with E3.  The XBox One may have a second shot at redemption here, and the PS4 could FINALLY be revealed in its full form.  E3's about the games, and that's the big seller for me.  Both consoles haven't impressed me beyond fleeting curiosity.  That may change, but it's likely I'm not going to be a two console person this time.  More on that later..... in the meantime, how am I doing in my gaming queue?  Read on!

  The Wii may be on its deathbed, but believe or not I'm still getting new games for it.  This one may likely be my last new Wii release to pick up, but I feel it's a good one; Pandora's Tower.  On the surface, it looks like a generic console RPG, but there's a unique charm to it.  A young woman is slowly being transformed by a curse and the game forces the player to defeat thirteen towers to save her as the curse ravages her body.  There are a lot of deep themes associated with the game's story; for example, the young woman, Elena, must literally eat beast flesh (believe me, the cutscenes depicting this are tough to watch!)  to curb the progression of the curse in spite of the fact that her culture is forbidden to eat meat.  What's also interesting to note with Pandora's Tower is the fact that you've got to clear an area within a time limit (and that includes defeating the boss at the end) as the curse transforms Elena in real time, but the game's environments are anything but simple.  Shortcuts are crucial, and so is collecting beast flesh.  Anyway, that's all I can tell you at this point......

  Furthermore, I'm getting back into Darksiders 2 again.  I've made substantial progress since the last time I played it and just finished defeating the Guardian.  I'm tackling the PS3 version of the game this time.  The PS3 version's plagued with longer load times compared to the 360 port, but for me, playing it on my PS3 feels right.

  

  For gaming interests of June outside of the Last of Us (which I am primed to pick up in two weeks) I'm also doing research on Remember Me.  A 7.0 score here at GS isn't bad by any stretch; the common complaint here is that it is "frustratingly linear" when the world is so meticulously crafted that it begs to be fully explored.  Final Fantasy XIII suffered the same issue with linearity in a beautifully realized world.  Still though, I may get this when the price drops.

  -----

  Lastly, I'm making major changes to my gaming life.  You've probably noticed that I am starting to port a lot of my 360 games on my PS3.  There's a reason for that -- I've decided to be a one console guy (between Sony and Microsoft, of course)  Having both a 360 and PS3 is great for most, but for me, it's become unnecessary.  Choosing a multi-platform game between consoles is rather pointless when they're both virtually identical; sans some minor differences in performance.  As far as exclusives is concerned, the only notable 360 franchise that gave me interest was Gears of War (Judgment turned out to be a let-down.) I couldn't get into Halo 4, try as I might. And I don't have the time to play video games as much as I want to because my life has gotten a lot busier (I'm lucky to play Darksiders 2 in evenings and sparsely on weekends)   I'll always love the 360 and Microsoft and wish them and its fanbase the utmost success and fun times, and I WON'T be a Sony fanboy.  I'm just a gamer, and I game to have fun.  And right now, I feel I need to be just a one console guy, and I'm quite content with what I have; the PS3.  (matastig will be pleased with me, no doubt.)

  Anyhow, that's it from this front.  Keep calm, game on and live long and prosper.

  • Posted Jun 3, 2013 10:43 am GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 18May 13

  First-person shooter like

  

  So I think I'm getting slightly better at first-person shooters.  Bioshock was good training apart from the unforgettable experience and, although I'm still getting fragged more often that I would care to admit, I feel as if I'm getting the basics down pat to survive a full fifteen minutes or more.  I only now just need to work on ammo conservation and not haphazardly shooting everything that moves.... and missing my targets 45% of the time.

  Of course, I wanted to go further than Bioshock, so I decided to try Resistance. I picked up all three Resistance games for my PS3 a few days ago, and have been playing the original Resistance practically non-stop.  Resistance is certainly an old-school kind of first-person shooter, and nothing like all the third-person shooters I'm a bit more accustomed to.   It's more challenging than Bioshock because the Chimera come in many different flavors and are far more aggressive.  For a PS3 game, Resistance looks a little dated, and understandably so seeing how the game was released around the time of the PS3's first cycle; made even more apparent by the utter lack of Trophy support.  Still though, as of this writing, I'm near the end of the game and hoping to start up Resistance 2.

  No leapfrogging this franchise for me.   I didn't want a repeat from Assassin's Creed---even though that game is vastly different in every way from a first-person shooter like Resistance.  Storywise, I want to enjoy the games spoiler-free and, so far, it's pretty intriguing.

  

  The next game in line for me possibly is Killzone.  I understand there are three games in the series, like Resistance, and almost similar in style and substance.  But Killzone has you shooting soldiers, not aliens, and it's far more grittier.  Even though I do not typically buy first-person shooters on the PS3, these two franchises are solid Sony-exclusives that I couldn't ignore.  A good thing I waited, too, because Killzone's dead-cheap.  If you've played Killzone before and have varying opinions, let me know.  In fact, if you can recommend other good FPSes for either the PS3 or the 360, I'm open to suggestions!

  Thanks for reading.  Now it's high time that I finished my business with the Chimera.

   

  • Posted May 18, 2013 7:10 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
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